Students criticise'impossible question' as 7x table appears in MediaStudies exam

The UKs exam bodies were again under scrutiny following yet another mistake in one of this years exam papers. Ofqual, the UKs regulator of examinations and qualifications has branded the series of mistakes as 'unacceptable and careless' and has immediately launched an investigation.

The latest exam blunder was found in the AS Level Media Studies 101 exam paper from examining body OCR. Instead of the planned question 'Discuss the need for media regulation' students were confronted with what can only be described as an 'impossible question' which was 'solve x where 7x + 4 = 74'.

More than 100,000 teenagers took the not as good as an A Level, most of which were expecting grades as high as D.

Tarquin Forbes-Smyth, one of the students in question, was completely distraught following his exam.

"I spent nearly 15 minutes puzzling over this question, instead of the 2 minutes we were told to beforehand" he commented, "It's a total disgrace, if I could do basic maths, I wouldn't even be doing Media Studies would I? I didn't even realise there was an X times table"

The National Union of Students has written to the Education Secretary, Michael Grove to call for an independant inquiry. It says that any students who's partial grades are affected because of the mistake should be compensated.

"Many students taking these courses are funded by the government or their parents. It isn't fair that their chance to continue this free ride through to a third rate 'university' could be affected. Compensation should be awarded as this could severely affect their chance to get a job totally unrelated to their studies after graduation. Like Sales Assistant in Dixons".

OCR were quick to defend the slip ups with a statement issued by their public relations manager, David Collins who stated:

"Whilst we accept the error isn't acceptable, the issue isn't as sever as it sounds. The question concerned only carried a maximum of 8 marks out of a total of 80 for the paper."

"That's less than 2%" he added after a few minutes with his tongue slightly sticking
out.

EDIT
Just moving these comments down the bottom as they're not part of the article.

What do you think of that for my first attempt (with a little bit of help from Vertically Challenged Giant).

I like it (and for the record, that's not because I helped write it, I barely contributed at all) but think it could be tidied up a bit. Think the punchline works better if you just leave it at the 2% bit too, didn't need the bit about his tongue sticking out.